Context. The nuclear star cluster of the Galaxy is an important template for understanding its extragalactic counterparts, which can currently not be resolved into individual stars. Important drawbacks of observations of the Galactic center are, however, the presence of strong and spatially highly variable interstellar extinction and extreme crowding of the sources, which makes the use of adaptive optics techniques necessary. Both points pose serious obstacles to precise photometry that is needed for analyzing the stellar population. Aims. The aims of this work are to provide accurate photometry in multiple near-infrared broadband filters, to determine the powerlaw index of the extinction-law toward the central parsec of the Galaxy, to provide measurements of the absolute extinction toward the Galactic center, and finally to measure the spatial variability of extinction on arcsecond scales. Methods. We use observations of the central parsec of the Milky Way that were obtained with the near-infrared camera and adaptive optics system NAOS/CONICA at the ESO VLT unit telescope 4. The photometric method takes into account anisoplanatic effects and limits the corresponding systematic uncertainties to 2%. Absolute values for the extinction in the H, Ks, and L -bands as well as of the power-law indices of the H to Ks and Ks to L extinction-laws are measured based on the well-known properties of red clump stars. Extinction maps are derived based on H − Ks and Ks − L colors. Results. We present Ks-band photometry for ∼7700 stars, and additionally photometry for stars detected in the H and/or L -bands. From a number of recently published values we compute a mean distance of the Galactic center of R 0 = 8.03 ± 0.15 kpc, which has an uncertainty of just 2%. Based on this R 0 and on the RC method, we derive absolute mean extinction values toward the central parsec of the Galaxy of A H = 4.48 ± 0.13 mag, A Ks = 2.54 ± 0.12 mag, and A L = 1.27 ± 0.18 mag. We estimate values of the power-law indices of the extinction-law of α H−Ks = 2.21 ± 0.24 and α Ks−L = 1.34 ± 0.29. A Ks-band extinction map for the Galactic center is computed based on this extinction law and on stellar H − Ks colors. Both its statistical and systematic uncertainties are estimated to be <10%. Extinction in this map derived from stellar color excesses is found to vary on arcsecond scales, with a mean value of A Ks = 2.74 ± 0.30 mag. Mean extinction values in a circular region with 0.5 radius centered on Sagittarius A* are A H,SgrA * = 4.35 ± 0.12, A Ks,SgrA * = 2.46 ± 0.03, and A L ,SgrA * = 1.23 ± 0.08.

Context. Stellar dynamics indicate the presence of a supermassive 3−4 × 10 6 M black hole at the Galactic Center. It is associated with the variable radio, near-infrared, and X-ray source Sagittarius A* (SgrA*). Aims. The goal is the investigation and understanding of the physical processes responsible for the variable emission from SgrA*. Methods. The observations have been carried out using the NACO adaptive optics (AO) instrument at the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (July 2005, May 2007) and the ACIS-I instrument aboard the Chandra X-ray Observatory (July 2005). Results. We find that for the July 2005 flare the variable and polarized NIR emission of SgrA* occurred synchronous with a moderately bright flare event in the X-ray domain with an excess 2−8 keV luminosity of about 8 × 10 33 erg/s. We find no time lag between the flare events in the two wavelength bands with a lower limit of ≤10 min. The May 2007 flare shows the highest sub-flare to flare contrast observed until now. It provides evidence for a variation in the profile of consecutive sub-flares. Conclusions. We confirm that highly variable and NIR polarized flare emission is non-thermal and that there exists a class of synchronous NIR/X-ray flares. We find that the flaring state can be explained via the synchrotron self-Compton (SSC) process involving up-scattered X-rays from the compact source component. The observations can be interpreted in a model involving a temporary disk with a short jet. In the disk component the flux density variations can be explained by spots on relativistic orbits around the central supermassive black hole (SMBH). The profile variations for the May 2007 flare can be interpreted as a variation of the spot structure due to differential rotation within the disk.

Stellar multiplicity is believed to influence planetary formation and evolution, although the precise nature and extent of this role remain ambiguous. We present a study aimed at testing the role of stellar multiplicity in the formation and/or evolution of the most massive, closein planetary and substellar companions. Using past and new direct imaging observations, as well as the Gaia DR2 catalogue, we searched for wide binary companions to 38 stars hosting massive giant planets or brown dwarfs (M > 7 M Jup ) on orbits shorter than ∼1 AU. We report the discovery of a new component in the WASP-14 system, and present an independent confirmation of a comoving companion to WASP-18. From a robust Bayesian statistical analysis, we derived a binary fraction of 79.0 +13.2 −14.7 % between 20−10,000 AU for our sample, twice as high as for field stars with a 3-σ significance. This binary frequency was found to be larger than for lower-mass planets on similar orbits, and we observed a marginally higher binary rate for inner companions with periods shorter than 10 days. These results demonstrate that stellar companions greatly influence the formation and/or evolution of these systems, suggesting that the role played by binary companions becomes more important for higher-mass planets, and that this trend may be enhanced for systems with tighter orbits. Our analysis also revealed a peak in binary separation at 250 AU, highlighting a shortfall of close binaries among our sample. This indicates that the mechanisms affecting planet and brown dwarf formation or evolution in binaries must operate from wide separations, although we found that the Kozai-Lidov mechanism is unlikely to be the dominant underlying process. We conclude that binarity plays a crucial role in the existence of very massive short-period giant planets and brown dwarf desert inhabitants, which are almost exclusively observed in multiple systems.

We present new 890 µm continuum ALMA observations of 5 brown dwarfs (BDs) with infrared excess in Lupus I and III -which, in combination with 4 BDs previously observed, allowed us to study the mm properties of the full known BD disk population of one star-forming region. Emission is detected in 5 out of the 9 BD disks. Dust disk mass, brightness profiles and characteristic sizes of the BD population are inferred from continuum flux and modeling of the observations. Only one source is marginally resolved, allowing for the determination of its disk characteristic size. We conduct a demographic comparison between the properties of disks around BDs and stars in Lupus. Due to the small sample size, we cannot confirm or disprove if the disk mass over stellar mass ratio drops for BDs, as suggested for Ophiuchus. Nevertheless, we find that all detected BD disks have an estimated dust mass between 0.2 and 3.2 M C ; these results suggest that the measured solid masses in BD disks can not explain the observed exoplanet population, analogous to earlier findings on disks around more massive stars. Combined with the low estimated accretion rates, and assuming that the mm-continuum emission is a reliable proxy for the total disk mass, we derive ratios of 9 M acc {M disk significantly lower than in disks around more massive stars. If confirmed with more accurate measurements of disk gas masses, this result could imply a qualitatively different relationship between disk masses and inward gas transport in BD disks.

Context. The massive black hole at the center of the Milky Way, Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*) is, in relative terms, the weakest accreting black hole accessible to observations. It has inspired the theoretical models of radiatively inefficient accretion. Unfortunately, our knowledge of the mean SED and source structure of Sgr A* is very limited owing to numerous observational difficulties. At the moment, the mean SED of Sgr A* is only known reliably in the radio to mm regimes. Aims. The goal of this paper is to provide constraints on the mean emission from Sgr A* in the near-to-mid infrared. Methods. Sensitive images of the surroundings of Sgr A* at 8.6 μm, 4.8 μm , and 3.8 μm were produced by combining large quantities of imaging data. Images were produced for several observing epochs. Excellent imaging quality was reached in the MIR by using speckle imaging combined with holographic image reconstruction, a novel technique for this kind of data. Results. No counterpart of Sgr A* is detected at 8.6 μm. At this wavelength, Sgr A* is located atop a dust ridge, which considerably complicates the search for a potential point source. An observed 3σ upper limit of ∼10 mJy is estimated for the emission of Sgr A* at 8.6 μm, a tighter limit at this wavelength than in previous work. The de-reddened 3σ upper limit, including the uncertainty of the extinction correction, is ∼84 mJy . Based on the available data, it is argued that, with currently available instruments, Sgr A* cannot be detected in the MIR, not even during flares. At 4.8 μm and 3.8 μm, on the other hand, Sgr A* is detected at all times, at least when considering timescales of a few up to 13 min. We derive well-defined time-averaged, de-reddened flux densities of 3.8 ± 1.3 mJy at 4.8 μm and 5.0 ± 0.6 mJy at 3.8 μm. Observations with NIRC2/Keck and NaCo/VLT from the literature provide good evidence that Sgr A* also has a fairly well-defined de-reddened mean flux of 0.5−2.5 mJy at wavelengths of 2.1−2.2 μm. Conclusions. We present well-constrained anchor points for the SED of Sgr A* on the high-frequency side of the Terahertz peak. The new data are in general agreement with published theoretical SEDs of the mean emission from Sgr A*, but we expect them to have an appreciable impact on the model parameters in future theoretical work.

We report rotational periods for 16 young brown dwarfs in the nearby Upper Scorpius association, based on 72 days of high-cadence, high-precision photometry from the Kepler space telescope's K2 mission. The periods range from a few hours to two days (plus one outlier at 5 days), with a median just above one day, confirming that brown dwarfs, except at the very youngest ages, are fast rotators. Interestingly, four of the slowest rotators in our sample exhibit mid-infrared excess emission from disks; at least two also show signs of disk eclipses and accretion in the lightcurves. Comparing these new periods with those for two other young clusters and simple angular momentum evolution tracks, we find little or no rotational braking in brown dwarfs between 1-10 Myr, in contrast to low-mass stars. Our findings show that disk braking, while still at work, is inefficient in the substellar regime, thus provide an important constraint on the mass dependence of the braking mechanism.

Context. We report on new modeling results based on the mm-to X-ray emission of the SgrA* counterpart associated with the massive ∼4 × 10 6 M black hole at the Galactic Center. Aims. We investigate the physical processes responsible for the variable emission from SgrA*. Methods. Our modeling is based on simultaneous observations carried out on 07 July, 2004, using the NACO adaptive optics (AO) instrument at the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope and the ACIS-I instrument aboard the Chandra X-ray Observatory as well as the Submillimeter Array SMA on Mauna Kea, Hawaii, and the Very Large Array in New Mexico. Results. The observations revealed several flare events in all wavelength domains. Here we show that the flare emission can be described with a combination of a synchrotron self-Compton (SSC) model followed by an adiabatic expansion of the source components. The SSC emission at NIR and X-ray wavelengths involves up-scattered sub-millimeter photons from a compact source component. At the start of the flare, spectra of these components peak at frequencies between several 100 GHz and 2 THz. The adiabatic expansion then accounts for the variable emission observed at sub-mm/mm wavelengths. The derived physical quantities that describe the flare emission give a blob expansion speed of v exp ∼ 0.005 c, magnetic field of B around 60 G or less and spectral indices of α = 0.8 to 1.4, corresponding to a particle spectral index p ∼ 2.6 to 3.8. Conclusions. A combined SSC and adiabatic expansion model can fully account for the observed flare flux densities and delay times covering the spectral range from the X-ray to the mm-radio domain. The derived model parameters suggest that the adiabatic expansion takes place in source components that have a bulk motion larger than v exp or the expanding material contributes to a corona or disk, confined to the immediate surroundings of SgrA*.

We performed a comprehensive demographic study of the CO extent relative to dust of the disk population in the Lupus clouds in order to find indications of dust evolution and possible correlations with other disk properties. We increased the number of disks of the region with measured RCO and Rdust from observations with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array to 42, based on the gas emission in the 12CO J = 2−1 rotational transition and large dust grains emission at ~0.89 mm. The CO integrated emission map is modeled with an elliptical Gaussian or Nuker function, depending on the quantified residuals; the continuum is fit to a Nuker profile from interferometric modeling. The CO and dust sizes, namely the radii enclosing a certain fraction of the respective total flux (e.g., R68%), are inferred from the modeling. The CO emission is more extended than the dust continuum, with a R68%CO/R68%dust median value of 2.5, for the entire population and for a subsample with high completeness. Six disks, around 15% of the Lupus disk population, have a size ratio above 4. Based on thermo-chemical modeling, this value can only be explained if the disk has undergone grain growth and radial drift. These disks do not have unusual properties, and their properties spread across the population’s ranges of stellar mass (M⋆), disk mass (Mdisk), CO and dust sizes (RCO, Rdust), and mass accretion of the entire population. We searched for correlations between the size ratio and M⋆, Mdisk, RCO, and Rdust: only a weak monotonic anticorrelation with the Rdust is found, which would imply that dust evolution is more prominent in more compact dusty disks. The lack of strong correlations is remarkable: the sample covers a wide range of stellar and disk properties, and the majority of the disks have very similar size ratios. This result suggests that the bulk of the disk population may behave alike and be in a similar evolutionary stage, independent of the stellar and disk properties. These results should be further investigated, since the optical depth difference between CO and dust continuum might play a major role in the observed size ratios of the population. Lastly, we find a monotonic correlation between the CO flux and the CO size. The results for the majority of the disks are consistent with optically thick emission and an average CO temperature of around 30 K; however, the exact value of the temperature is difficult to constrain.